Ribbed article and process of forming same



Dec. 4- 1,520,303

s. D. NICHOLS RIBBED ARTICLE AND PROCESS OF FORMING SAME Filed Feb. 16, 1923 (quucnfoz Patented Dec. 23,1924.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

RIBBED ARTICLE AND PROCESS OF FORMING SAME.

Application filed February 1c, 1923. Serial No. 619,536.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I. SAMUEL D. NICHOLS, a citizen of the United States. residing at Fond du Lac. in the county of Fond du Lac and State of Wisconsin, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ribbed Articles and Processes of Forming the Same: and I do declare the following to be a full. clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to improvements in articles of manufacture embodying a sheet of leather or other flexible material having a rib on its obverse side, the present disclosure being directed to a shoe vamp.

One object of the invention is to provide a ribbed article in which the rib will be uniform throughout its length, instead of being irregular at portions, as now results from the present day methods of forming the rib.

A further object is to provide an improved process for forming the rib, consisting in F passing two spaced parallel rows of stitching through the sheet of material and drawing the two rows of stitching toward each other at the reverse side of the sheet. causing protrusion of the material at the obverse side of said sheet to form a rib between the two rows of stitching.

With the foregoing in view, the invention resides in the novel subject matter hereinafter described-and claimed, the description being supplemented by the accompanying drawing.

Figure 1 is a plan view of a shoe vamp formed with a rib in accordance with my invention.

Figure 2 is a lower side elevation on an enlarged scale showing the preferred mannor of drawing the two rows of stitching together and holding them.

Figure 3 is an enlarged transverse sectional view as indicated by line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

In carrying out my invention, I take the sheet of material to be ribbed, such as a shoe vamp indicated by the reference num eral 1 in the drawing and form two paral-- lel, spaced rows of stitching 2 therethrough at the proper locations. Machine stitching is preferably used and the two rows may well be formed by a double needle machine in order to insure that they shall be spaced equidistantly throughout their lengh. However. it will be understood that each row could be formed separately, either by a machine operation or by hand.

After forming the rows of stitching 2, these rows are drawn toward each other and held at the reverse side of the sheet 1 and while other means could be employed for performing this operation, I prefer to lace a suitable leash 3 through the stitching of the rows, using this leash to draw the rows tightly together. This operation causes protrusion of the material between the two rows of stitching at the obverse side of the sheet 1 and thus forms the desired rib which will be uniform throughout its length. This uniformity cannot be obtained by the methods now commonly used and furthermore. the latter require a great deal of trouble and time.

Excellent results have been obtained from the details of construction and the method steps here-in disclosed and they are therefore preferably followed. I wish it understood however that within the scope of the invention as claimed. numerous minor changes may be made. Furthermore, the use of my invention is not restricted to any particular field, but may be employed wherever it is desired to form a rib on a piece of flexible sheet material.

I claim:

1. The process of forming a rib on sheet material, consisting informing two spaced parallel disconnected rows of stitching through uniform thicknesses of the same sheet of material, and by an entirely separate operation passing a lace through adjacent stitches of said rows and by said lace drawing said rows into contact with each other at one side of the sheet to bulge the material at the other side of said sheet and form the rib.

2. The process of forming a rib on sheet material consisting in simultaneously forming two disconnected parallel mews of ordinery machine stitching through uniform thicknesses of the same sheet 0f material, removing the sheet from the machine, on which the stitching cperetion is performed, and by an entirely separate operation pessing a lace through adjacent stitches of said we eee mews and by said lace drawing said rows inte contact with each other at one side of the sheet to hulge the material at the other 1 side of said sheet and form the rib.

In testimony whereof I have hereunte affixed my signature.

SAMUEL D. NICHULS. 

